The 29-year-old racer from Hartford, Conn., might be the least
experienced of the three Rahal Letterman Racing drivers including Danica
Patrick and Buddy Rice, but the driver of the No. 17 Team Ethanol Honda
Dallara Firestone car has been impressive in his last four races.

Simmons came to the Ohio-based team in difficult circumstances following
the death of Paul Dana in the season opener at Homestead, Fla., in March.
But Simmons has shown the potential that Bobby Rahal saw in Simmons when
he hired him in the third race this year.

Simmons has recorded four consecutive Top Ten finishes at Kansas,
Nashville, Milwaukee and Michigan. His seventh at Nashville was a career
high for Simmons.

"The beginning of the year was tough for me and the Team Ethanol
crew," said Simmons, who has two Indy Pro Series wins (2004, 2005)
at Kentucky Speedway. "I made some rookie mistakes and we were just
caught up in some bad luck and unfortunate situations, but we have been
able to put that behind us now. It was difficult with no pre-season
testing and really no testing at all with the Team Ethanol car. Now we
have been able to test at Kentucky and that will help us coming into the
race weekend."

Simmons got in a rookie test last week and it proved helpful not only to
Simmons but to the entire RLR team.

"We came to Kentucky straight from the Michigan race," said
Simmons. "Everyone was a little tired but the test was very
helpful. We were able to work on several areas of the chassis and that
will help Danica, Buddy and myself when practice opens on Saturday. We
are still learning more about the Dallara chassis."

Rahal Letterman Racing switched from the Panoz to the Dallara chassis at
mid-season and the learning curve has been steep. But Simmons believes
the team is getting closer to the team's Panoz success the past few
years.

"The team was very familiar to the Panoz in all types of
settings," said Simmons. "But we are gaining momentum with
the Dallara. I think the last three races will be good for us."

The Rahal Letterman squad excelled with Panoz chassis in the past two
years as Rice and Patrick have captured the last two pole positions at
Kentucky. Rice just missed winning the Kentucky event in 2004 (by 0.0581
seconds to Adrian Fernandez) and RLR's Vitor Meira nearly captured
last year's contest finishing second by 0.0779 seconds to Scott
Sharp.

"I have always liked the Kentucky track and I thought I had a
chance to win the race in 2004," said Rice, the 2004 Indy 500
winner who'll drive his popular Argent Mortgage Honda Dallara
Sunday. "We have been getting better with the Dallara chassis on
the bigger track and Jeff's test should help us coming into the
race. There is no doubt that testing and racing at the same time on a new
car is difficult. But the Rahal Letterman engineers have been working
many hours to get the new car up to speed. I think have shown that in
recent races. Now, it is time to race for the win. We have been improving
and now we need to get into the mix with the leaders. Kentucky is a wide
track and two grooves are possible. So I feel like we have a better setup
for this weekend."

Patrick was lightning fast in practice last year at Kentucky and she has
scored two fourth place finishes with the new Dallara chassis this year.
Patrick tied the IRL rookie record for poles last year with three
(Kansas, Kentucky, Chicagoland).

Patrick comes to Kentucky after a frustrating finish at Michigan. The
2005 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year had finished every race this
season (nine straight) and appeared poised to claim another top-ten
result when she ran out of fuel with less than two laps remaining in the
Firestone Indy 400.

"It was frustrating to have worked so had and to have seen a solid
result slip away," said Danica. "Still I can take solace in
the fact that even though we had a difficult race we were able to work
our way forward and to be in a position to post a decent result."

This week Patrick returns to the Kentucky Speedway for the Meijer Indy
300 presented by Coca-Cola and Secret. It marks the popular
driver's first time back at the track since she won the pole at
Kentucky in 2005.

"We had a great car last year, but we had problems in the race and
we had a problem with the gearbox which left us down several laps,"
said Patrick. "It proved to be a long and frustrating day. This
year we have been slower in qualifying, but over the last several events
our race set-up has been outstanding. Hopefully we can make some
progress, build upon Jeff's test, and turn in a better qualifying
performance. If we can start up front and race the way we have the last
few weeks who knows how good our results can be?"

RAHAL LETTERMAN NOTES

Buddy Rice will make his 43rd IndyCar Series start for RLR this weekend
and the 61st of his career. Rice is the career leader in IndyCar Series
starts for RLR. Danica Patrick will make her 28th IndyCar Series start
this weekend and her 57th start for RLR having run Barber Dodge and
Atlantics from 2002-04. Jeff Simmons will make his tenth start for RLR
this weekend and his twelfth IndyCar Series start overall. Bobby Rahal is
the career leader in starts for RLR with 116 starts.